Like most people, MedComms was not something I had heard of whilst growing up, and it was only a couple of years ago that I came across the industry.
My degree was in politics and modern history. I chose this as I was unsure what career path was best suited to me and, even when I finished university, I was still uncertain. I started my career in human resources and internal recruitment, and in 2017 secured a job on the Talent Acquisition team at Ashfield MedComms. I remember sitting in the interview confident about my recruitment skills but still unsure exactly what it was that the account teams did!
I spent the next two and a half years recruiting other people into client services and medical writing roles and began to understand the ins and outs of the industry. In 2018 I got an opportunity to do some shadowing in one of our agencies in the run up to an onsite meeting in Glasgow. I took the opportunity to find out a bit more about the day-to-day of the role and really enjoyed the challenge!
I moved across the Ashfield MedComms business into an Account Executive role in 2019 as a job vacancy had opened up. I thought it was too good an opportunity to miss and I haven’t looked back! My role as an account executive has been really varied. I’ve had the opportunity to work with multiple clients and lots of different Ashfield team members across a wide range of projects such as scientific academies, podcasts, symposia, animated videos…. The list goes on!
As part of the account team, I work to ensure that projects are delivered on time and to budget whilst ensuring the team and the client are happy! As I’m sure you can imagine, the last 18 months has been a little different due to the COVID-19 pandemic. My role has evolved to focus on the delivery of virtual projects from a home office, and yet I still feel close to my colleagues. Ashfield have continued to help nurture my career and help me to achieve my goals; they’ve supported me with the move across the business and more recently in my promotion to account manager.
I feel incredibly lucky that I got the chance to move into an account executive position and would recommend this industry to anyone that asks. The role is much more varied than a job description could convey and gives you the opportunity to think outside of the box and do something that makes a difference. If you’re considering a job in MedComms then go for it, I’m sure you’ll love it just as much as I do.
This personal profile first appeared in the FirstMedCommsJob careers guide, The business of medical communications: a guide to getting started in account management, published January 2022
Meet representatives from Ashfield MedComms on 19 September. Meanwhile, find out more about them here.
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